National Poison Prevention Week is the Perfect Time to Make Sure Your Home is Safe with These Poison Prevention Tips

Published on March 24, 2016

Every third week in March we celebrate National Poison Prevention Week to bring awareness to the nearly two million poisonings that are reported each year, 90% of which are in the home. For 2016, National Poison Prevention Week is March 20th – March 26th, perfect timing for spring cleaning. Since the first day of spring is also the first day of National Poison Prevention Week, this is the perfect time to find out how to make your family’s home and indoor air quality safe as you clean.

Cleaning Products

Lock them up, put them up high, do whatever possible to make sure wee fingers and paws can’t reach your cleaning supplies. Installing child-safety locks on cabinets will help keep most children and pets away, but child-safe does not equal child-proof. Keeping cleaning products on an unreachable shelf or in a high cabinet is the surest way to help keep your young ones from accessing hazardous chemicals. Always leave the cleaning solutions in the original container with the label unaltered to avoid any mistakes and to make sure you are prepared if anything ever happens. Also, always turn on fans and open windows while cleaning to keep the chemicals from becoming stagnant in the air.

IMPORTANT: Just because it is natural does not mean it is non-toxic – treat ALL cleaning supplies with extreme caution.

Medicines

Two critical things mentioned about cleaning supplies are also crucial for medicines.

Just because it’s natural doesn’t make it non-toxic

Hyland’s Teething Tablets are homeopathic tablets given to young children to help ease teething pain. Several parents swear by these magic little guys to bring relief to their child, but over four years ago a new formula was created after the FDA discovered inconsistent amounts of belladonna in the tablets. This plant is toxic and eating small amounts of the belladonna leaves or berries may be fatal. That being said, this plant is used for various medical purposes – it’s in the eye drops that dilate your eyes, and is used (combined with other medicinal substances) to combat the flu, stomach ulcers, and Parkinson’s disease. The thing you need to keep in mind is just because it’s natural doesn’t indicate that it is non-toxic, and almost anything – found in nature or not – in excessive doses could be life-threatening.

Just because it is child resistant doesn’t mean it is childproof

Imagine, you’re cooking dinner and you hear, “Mom, this candy doesn’t taste good.” Your head whips around to find your two-year-old holding your prescription bottle in one hand and a small white pill in the other. Twenty minutes later you’re sitting in the ER wondering how a mama who made all of their baby food from organic produce and baby-proofed the entire house while seven months pregnant managed to end up with a medicine bottle, not only in arm’s reach of her child, but where they could actually get it opened. Just because the top is child-resistant, it doesn’t make it child-proof so keep those medications locked up tight.

Outdoor Chemicals

Just because you keep your insect killers , fertilizers, and rat poisons outside, doesn’t mean you can store them anywhere. Put them on a tall shelf or lock them up in a tool box. If you are spraying repellents around your home, time it so that it is right before you will be away for awhile to avoid someone inhaling or getting into the chemicals.

CO Detectors and Appliances

Carbon monoxide poisoning is more common than we’d like to think and, unfortunately, since there’s no scent and the symptoms are flu-like, it can be too late when we realize what’s occurring. Installing a battery-operated CO detector will help alert you and your family of any dangers, and having your heating system, water heater, and any other gas, oil, wood or coal burning appliances properly inspected and maintained by a qualified technician will help detect the danger early or keep it from happening.

Batteries and Magnets

Every toy on the shelf now seems to make lots of noise that is made possible by batteries. It’s easy to fling them in a drawer since it appears like you’re constantly having to chase down another AA – but don’t. Batteries are made up of chemicals, and the small batteries, like AAA or coin batteries, are easy to swallow. During digestion, the casing on batteries can become damaged and leak toxic acid into your body.

How to Get Help

If your children should ever ingest any chemicals, medication, or anything you feel is dangerous, call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222. Some people fear that calling Poison Control to inform them of their child ingesting something dangerous could get them in trouble with child protective services, but that’s not the case. The Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protects all calls to Poison Control and means they are not allowed to share your personal information with police or child protective services. The safety of you and your family is too valuable, so never hesitate to call even if you aren’t sure.

If you are ever in need of help to make sure your heating appliances are safe, please call Service Experts Heating & Air Conditioning at 305-440-1505 to schedule an appointment. Have a safe and healthy Poison Prevention Week.

To learn more about poison prevention and learn how you can make your family’s house safer, visit http://www.poisonprevention.org/ or try these other resources:

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